This is not a post on vegetarianism. In an introductory chapter of a work which is otherwise on a rather different matter, there is a passing reference to "The 64 Skills" to be studied by all Hindu wo/men (to which list the author wants to add his own work's topic). One of the 64 listed skills is the following:
(The print was such that I can't make out whether it's lAbaka or lAvaka or something... It's probably some animal, I think.)
It seems to me to mean one of either:
(a) a reference to the sports of cock-, ram- and lAb/vaka-fighting (i.e. spectator sports)
(b ) or I guess it could turn out to be technical terms for some fighting techniques named after animals (as exist in Chinese martial arts)
I actually suspect it may be (a), since the study of our own martial arts was already listed elsewhere in the same list of 64 skills.
IIRC the work itself - and it's probably not the first to mention it, plus it wasn't written in TN to my limited knowledge - was dated by the Brits to around 2 millennia ago (give or take some centuries). I guess that makes it ancient enough for the following argument:
Ancient Indian (Hindu) cultured society was expected to learn some/all of the 64 skills. Therefore, if (a) is the approximate meaning, then it's not exclusively Tamizh Hindus who hold cock-fighting events. They're merely those continuing an ancient event in pan-Indian/Hindu society. (<- Can use that argument - again, only if (a) is the case - to tell snobbish Hindus looking down on "barbarians" in their midst to get off one's back: if it is barbaric, then it was no less barbaric centuries ago as well, when more than just Tamizh Nadu's Hindus engaged in it and when it was moreover considered a feature of cultured society.)
Disclaimer: This post is not a recommendation of cock-/ram-/fighting, just as it is not a condemnation of the same. It's just a post on: if you're being hassled about this very topic and declared a "barbarian" on account of it, look up a listing of "the 64 skills" (or however you translate it) and see whether it is indeed relevant.
Quote:meShakukkuTalAbaka-yuddhavidhiH
(The print was such that I can't make out whether it's lAbaka or lAvaka or something... It's probably some animal, I think.)
It seems to me to mean one of either:
(a) a reference to the sports of cock-, ram- and lAb/vaka-fighting (i.e. spectator sports)
(b ) or I guess it could turn out to be technical terms for some fighting techniques named after animals (as exist in Chinese martial arts)
I actually suspect it may be (a), since the study of our own martial arts was already listed elsewhere in the same list of 64 skills.
IIRC the work itself - and it's probably not the first to mention it, plus it wasn't written in TN to my limited knowledge - was dated by the Brits to around 2 millennia ago (give or take some centuries). I guess that makes it ancient enough for the following argument:
Ancient Indian (Hindu) cultured society was expected to learn some/all of the 64 skills. Therefore, if (a) is the approximate meaning, then it's not exclusively Tamizh Hindus who hold cock-fighting events. They're merely those continuing an ancient event in pan-Indian/Hindu society. (<- Can use that argument - again, only if (a) is the case - to tell snobbish Hindus looking down on "barbarians" in their midst to get off one's back: if it is barbaric, then it was no less barbaric centuries ago as well, when more than just Tamizh Nadu's Hindus engaged in it and when it was moreover considered a feature of cultured society.)
Disclaimer: This post is not a recommendation of cock-/ram-/fighting, just as it is not a condemnation of the same. It's just a post on: if you're being hassled about this very topic and declared a "barbarian" on account of it, look up a listing of "the 64 skills" (or however you translate it) and see whether it is indeed relevant.
Death to traitors.